Fourth of July Mani (& Fireworks!)

Happy Independence Day to my fellow US citizens! I hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday! I had the cutest idea in mind for my July 4th mani but it didn't work out the way I wanted (huge bummer!), so this is my back up design. I haven't done a french mani in a long time, so I actually really enjoyed wearing this.

I started out with two coats of Confetti Pink Paradise on all my nails except my ring nail, which got two coats of China Glaze First Mate and one of Polished Perfection Servo. The french tips were done with hole reinforcers and Confetti The Red Carpet and Julep America (I know I said I'd never use Julep on the blog again, but I didn't have any patriotic glitters, so I swapped for this one). The silver is a Jordana striping polish.

And just for fun, I thought I'd post some photos of our family fireworks show from last night. This is a new tradition for us and it's really awesome! Please enjoy :) 

Pink Dry Brush Mani

The inspiration for this mani came from Lindsey at Neverland Nail Blog who created this gorgeous design. While mine is no where near as beautiful as hers, I am very pleased with how it turned out and how easy it was to create. If you would like to read about how it's done, Lindsey has created a helpful tutorial.

I used three coats of Julep Penelope as a base (Orly Kiss the Bride would probably be a close replacement) and when that was dry, I took a dry brush and painted swipes of Color Club Foil Me Once and Orly Dazzle. I added a pink rhinestone to my ring finger nails, but I'm not sure if it was really necessary or not. I love how this turned out!

NOTE: Some of you may be aware that I provide my referral link at the bottom of all posts that mention Julep, but I no longer feel comfortable referring people to their program due to recent events. My referral link has therefore been removed from my sidebar and all posts regarding Julep in hopes that I will no longer generate traffic (and therefore profit) to their page.

Julep Blake & Heather

These are the two polishes that came in January's Boho Glam Maven box. Blake is a creamy, light yellow shade that needed three coats to be opaque and non-streaky. When I saw this in the bottle, I thought for sure that I would hate it. However, I ended up being really happy with it on my nails. I don't know what it is about this shade of yellow, but it works for me. 

The second color, Heather, is part of Julep's newest collection for Spring. Heather is a slightly frosty, taupe brown metallic shimmer. I used three coats here as well and wasn't as crazy about this one as I thought I would be. It's a beautiful color, but it just didn't excite me very much on the nail.

EDIT (as of 1/22): Some of you may be aware that I provide my referral link at the bottom of all posts that mention Julep, but I no longer feel comfortable referring people to their program due to recent events. My referral link has therefore been removed from my sidebar and all posts regarding Julep in hopes that I will no longer generate traffic (and therefore profit) to their page. I have one last post that uses Julep polish because I already did the mani and I love it, but after that, there will be no more posts about Julep on this blog. 

Julep Olivia

I've wanted to try more tape manis soooo bad lately, so I ordered striping tape from Hong Kong and after a few weeks of waiting patiently (riiiiight), my package finally came! Julep Olivia also came in the mail today, so I decided to use it in my abstract tape design mani. 

I did two coats of Olivia on all my nails except my ring nail, on which I applied one coat of Color Club Perfect Mol-ten. My bottle of Olivia was a little thick, so I added some polish thinner and it applied perfectly after that. I cut up some pieces of striping tape, arranged them randomly, and painted one thick coat of Olivia over them. I'm so happy with how this turned out and I can't wait to do more manis like this! 

January Julep Maven Box

I'm happy to report that I finally got my January Maven box after all the holiday commotion at the post office calmed down. I was SO excited for the colors in this one since they were so tropical-looking in the preview e-mail. The colors I received in my It Girl box were: Hayden, Leah, and Megan. I also received a complimentary nail therapy (which I love!) and a nail polish remover pad that I was really interested to try out. 

I used the nail polish remover pad to take off my mani before I swatched these polishes and it did work very well. It's basically a piece of red felt that has been soaked in polish remover and packaged up. The package says that you will be able to remove polish from all ten nails with one pad and that is actually a true statement. There were two downfalls to the pad though. Firstly, it smelled horrendously strong! Secondly, it left little red fuzzies on some of my nails, which to me is not really a problem because I wash my hands before I paint anyway, but this might bother some people. I would definitely pack some of these if I was traveling and wanted to save space and safely bring polish remover. 

Now on to the polishes... First up is the beautiful Leah, a gorgeous grass green shade with silver shimmer.  Leah needed two coats to be fully opaque and non-streaky. I didn't expect to like this shade of green very much, but I was really blown away when I put it on.

Megan, an aquamarine metallic polish, is next. Out of the three polishes, I was most excited for Megan when I got my preview e-mail, but I was disappointed when I actually wore it. Maybe it's because I have loads of blue polishes and it really takes something special to wow me. That's not to say that Megan isn't pretty, because it is, but it was just missing that "wow factor" for me. I had to use three coats for full opacity.

Lastly is the stunning neon peach creme that is Hayden. If you've been reading my blog since the beginning, you might recognize Hayden from an old post where it was named Amanda. Not sure what prompted the name change, but thankfully Julep kept the color the same! I love this shade so much, but I will say that it looks better on me when I have a bit of a tan. I used two coats of Hayden and I would also like to point out that, being a neon, it is a bit brighter in person than in my photo.

Julep Alicia

I know we're just getting into winter... but I really had the urge to wear something bright and summery and Julep Alicia fits the bill! I love coral shades and though Alicia leans more pink than coral, I absolutely love it. Julep's polishes are so pigmented that it's hard for me not to love them, especially in tropical shades! 

I used two coats of Alicia for what you see in the photos and it applied well after I added a few drops of thinner. I've found that most of the bright cremes from Julep arrive with a moderately thick formula, so adding some thinner from the start eliminates most application issues.

Merry Christmas Eve!

I thought you guys might be interested in seeing what I'll actually be wearing on my nails for Christmas, so here it is! I'm planning on wearing a berry-colored sweater dress with leggings, so I decided to be outfit-matching-festive instead of all-out-red-and-green-festive.

I used three coats of Dr.'s Remedy PASSION Purple with Julep Trina sponged onto the tips. I stamped the snowflake with Orly Shine and added a clear rhinestone to the center. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. See you all on Monday! :)

Day 11: Candy Canes

My mother wanted to see a candy cane mani, so I made her a candy cane mani! I used tape to create the stripes, but I think that I may have liked it more if I used a striping brush or smaller strips of tape. I used two coats of China Glaze Frosty as my base and applied my tape strips after my base dried. I painted over the tape with Julep Brooklyn and then layered China Glaze Ruby Pumps over Brooklyn to help smooth it out. I think I like the thickness of the stripes best on my pinky and ring fingers.

Julep Maven Box Review & Giveaway!

For those of you who don't know what the Julep Maven program is, let me fill you in. The Maven program is a monthly subscription program where you get between $40-$60 worth of products delivered to you every month for just $19.99. The boxes are different every month and always offer a new and exciting smattering of products for you to try. Julep's polishes are free of DBP, toluene, formaldehyde and formaldehyde resin and they also donate $1 from every nail polish purchase to organizations that help women. Add to that their perfect formula and awesome color range and what more could you really ask for?

Julep was kind enough to send me one of their Introductory Boxes to review for you guys and they were even more kind to offer one to give away to my readers! There will be more on that at the end of the post! Since my box happened to come in December, I found that it was all decked out for the holidays! Everything was packaged very well and arrived safely to me. 

The photo below shows the contents of my Introductory Box. I got Julep Nail Therapy, nail polishes in Kim, Trina, and Christina, a little pot of nail art sequins, and samples of their Hand Brightener cream and SPF 30 hand lotion.

Every box comes with a little card that has a description of what your box contains. "It Girl" was the style profile that I chose for my review, but there are many other style profiles to choose from. When you sign up for the Maven program, you need to take their Style Quiz to figure out which profile you would be. However, if you don't like what your box contains, you can always contact Julep and switch your profile. Their customer service has been top-notch in my experience.

Let's start off with Kim, shall we? Like my card says, Kim is a beautiful gunmetal gray shade with gorgeous shimmer. The formula was a little thinner than I'm used to with Julep and I had to use three coats to get what you see here. Two would have been okay, but three made Kim just a bit darker and more smokey.

Next up is the beautiful Christina. I can see myself wearing this on my toes all summer! Christina is a fiery orange-red with golden shimmer. Absolutely gorgeous and perfect in two coats. You can see a bit of VNL in the photo, but it wasn't noticeable in person.

Last but certainly not least is Trina, a deep purple shimmer. Trina is absolutely flawless. The formula was amazing and would have been perfect in one coat, but I did two here out of habit. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up before winter is over! :)

Now, to the part you patiently waited for: the giveaway! Julep will be giving away an Introductory Box to one of my lucky readers! Ready for the rules?

1. You must be a follower of The Nail Network. New followers are welcome!

2. You must be a resident of the United States or Canada. 

3. You must be 18+ or have parental approval.

4. The giveaway will end on Wednesday, January 4th at 10PM EST. 

*EDIT*
The giveaway is now closed. I will hopefully decide the winner and announce tomorrow! 

Day 4: Snowmen

Hey guys! Welcome to Day 4! Today's nail art was inspired by building snowmen on a bright winter day. I am an artist so I get to use cheesy inspiration like that, don't judge! ;P Anyway, this is two coats of the lovely Julep Amy.

As you can see, Amy is an awesome dusty but bright teal/blue with a really great formula. Julep really knows how to make a creme polish. I used a dotting tool to make the little snowman and Zoya Noel for the snowflake stamping.

French w/Julep Gayle

Remember last week how I mentioned I had another colored french for you? Here it is! This time, I used Julep Gayle for the tip color. The base is still Confetti Pink Paradise and the stamp was done with Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme. I added black rhinestones to the flowers as a finishing touch. This looks so awesome and fancy in person. What do you think? Have you tried using hole reinforcers for a french manicure?

French w/Julep Michelle

Hey guys! This is my 100th post! Woot! :D

I've blogged about all of these colors before so I won't say too much here. I used one coat of Confetti Pink Paradise as my base color. I created the french tip using hole reinforcers and Julep Michelle and I dotted OPI Catch Me in Your Net with three different sized dotting tools. This is the first time I've done a french tip in a color other than white and I'm loving it! Stay tuned for another version of this next week! :)

Julep Gayle

Again, Julep! You did it again! Gayle is incredible! Absolutely perfect formula (two coats) and a beautiful color as well. I'm really impressed with the polishes I've ordered lately from Julep; I don't know if I got some duds in the beginning or what, but the formula has been exponentially better in the polishes I've ordered recently.

Julep describes Gayle as a "regal, deep aubergine." I'm not sure I'd go with deep aubergine, maybe deep berry? It's definitely vibrant. I topped it with a coat of Orly Fowl Play on my accent nails and wore this for a whopping three days (an eternity for manis in my life)! I had minor chipping on the corners of a few of my nails, but I'm sure that would be solved with a better base coat. Maybe if my order from Bloom would ever show up... anywayyyyy...

Julep Michelle

Wowwwww! I am a huge fan of navy and this is one awesome navy polish! Julep Michelle is exactly what it looks like: a perfect dark navy creme. One of the best things about Michelle is that it won't appear black no matter what lighting you're under; it's always distinctly blue. This bottle also had a really great forumula; two thin coats were all I needed for the photo below.

Since Michelle is a creme, I knew I wanted to add something to it to make it a little more interested, so I stamped some flower images with two of the new Color Club foils: Lumin-icescent and Cold Metal. The Foiled collection is even better for stamping than I thought it was going to be! I'm so glad I bought them when I had the chance.

Julep Maggie

Haiiiiii guys! One of my readers wanted to see Julep Maggie, so I ordered it with one of my referral credits and here it is! Maggie has an amethyst-toned base with the most awesome glitter pieces ever. They flash pink, blue, silver and different shades of purple depending on the lighting.

Here's a shot of the glitter! I used two coats for what you see here and it covered perfectly. I hope my swatches do this polish justice and that they are satisfactory for you ladies who wanted to see it!

Remember I mentioned that I got Essie Matte About You? Yeah, I am seriously in love with it. I used tape to make the x-shape on my accent nails, but I think I should have removed the tape earlier since it doesn't look quite right. This mani was so awesome though... I love the different finishes together!

Julep Jennifer

A few weeks ago, my boyfriend's sister got married and I fell in love with sheer bridal nail polish. I was contemplating buying the OPI Femme de Cirque mini set, but then I received some referral credits from Julep and decided to see what they had to offer. Coincidently, the sheer I most wanted from their website is named after my boyfriend's sister! Here is two coats of Jennifer, a sheer pale pink.

Julep Alfre

Alfre was the second polish that I got in my Introductory Julep Maven box. I don't love it nearly as much as Cameron, but it's still pretty in its own way. Alfre is a frosty silvery purple that needed three coats because of the brushstrokes. The formula was loads better than Anne or Amanda; I feel like the formula is really hit or miss on these Julep polishes. Luckily, thick polishes can be fixed quickly and inexpensively! 

Julep Amanda

Darlings, here is Julep Amanda! Amanda is a lovely, summery apricot creme. Unfortunately, this polish suffered the same issue with thickness that Anne did and would definitely benefit from some thinner. You can tell in this photo that it applied kind of uneven, but it wasn't really noticeable in person. I used three coats. 

P.S.
As you've probably noticed, I've been doing a lot of Julep posts lately (hope no one minds!) and the reasoning behind it is that I've noticed there's not very many swatches available for their polishes. I'm trying to get as many of mine out there as I can to help people who are looking for these colors.

Julep Anne

So remember how I mentioned in my last post that I had four more Julep polishes coming my way? Well, they arrived safely inside that adorable little gift box there to the left (which was inside of a shipping box obviously). I'll be the first to admit that I'm a sucker for packaging and man did Julep win me over. I would be beyond excited if someone handed one of these to me as a gift!

Down there on the right is the inside of the box... The four polishes I ordered are, from left to right: Amanda (a light, creamsicle-esque orange),

Gwyneth (a sheer blush pink), Jennifer (a sheer, very pale pink), and Anne (a vivid lilac-ish purple).

Below is the gorgeous Anne. I know the photo is too dark, but this is literally the closest I could get to accurate color (and the bottle color is actually more accurate). Really, really awesome, stand-out polish and probably the brightest purple I've ever seen. However, Anne's downfall is her formula, which is terribly thick and goopy. I used two coats and they covered extremely well, but it definitely could have used some polish thinner.

Julep Stefani

As many of you may know, Julep has been having some technical issues with their Maven box subscriptions and referral codes. I've been told that they are working out the kinks, so hopefully they will be running smoothly in no time. I'd like to give this company the benefit of the doubt and not give up on them just yet.

Regardless, I am still very happy with the products that Julep offers. In my September Maven box, I received the polish Stefani, which is a glittery olive shade with tiny gold shimmer. The formula on these Julep polishes is pretty great. I used two coats for the photos below; this was a super quick and easy manicure. I have four more polishes from Julep on their way and I can't wait to get them! :)

Here's a nice close-up of all the gold shimmer pieces:

And lastly, if anyone is interested, this was the contents of my September Maven box. In addition to Stefani, I received a cuticle oil with roller-ball top (!!!), a crystal file, and Julep's SPF 30 hand cream. The cuticle oil is pretty good and it smells nice too, though the smell actually reminds me of lemon Pledge. Random, I know. The file is okay as well, it doesn't work as quickly as my cheap file from Sally's, but it's probably better for nail health in the long run. The hand cream was the only disappointment in the bunch. It smells like bad sunscreen (normally I LOVE the smell of sunscreen) and leaves my hands greasy after I use it. I think I'll stick with my Avon Intensive Moisture lotion...